Colleen Morgan is an archaeology Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the first anthropology graduate student at UC Berkeley with a dedicated emphasis in New Media.
Morgan received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology/Asian Studies from the University of Texas in 2004. She has worked as a professional archaeologist in Texas and California, as well as Dhiban, Jordan, the island of Moloka'i and Catalhoyuk, Turkey.
In 2008, she studied the historical archaeology of Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka’i then went from the tropical south Pacific to the arid deserts of Jordan as part of the 2009 Dhiban Excavation and Development Project, a Faculty Career and Enhancement Project sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Safari operators in Africa realised several years ago that there were people who wanted to see the wildlife, but not shake dirt out of a sleeping bag and take a shovel to dig a loo at the end of the day. Now London-based Ancient World Tours, who specialise in ancient sites, is amongst a growing number of companies capitalising on this growing market, and offering camping holidays with a twist of glamour: glamping. I spoke to Managing Director Peter Allingham about the changing face of cultural tourism.
Although the name sounds like something a dodgy pop star would do, ‘glamping’ (glamour camping) is giving some tour operators the edge in a competitive market. Having gained popularity in parts of Europe, America and Australia, glamping is rapidly becoming a part of a tour’s itinerary in countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
Professor Edward Banning is a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada. He holds a PhD in archaeology from the same institution.
His field research focuses on the Near East, in the Neolithic timeframe – a period when people began growing crops and living in small villages. It lasted from 8500 BC – 4300 BC. Urban life didn’t exist at this time anywhere in the world.
Professor Banning’s fieldwork includes the site of Ain Ghazal in Jordan. He is also director of the Wadi Ziqlab project which excavates and analyzes sites in Northern Jordan.
He is also interested, more generally, in archaeological theory, sampling, measurement and lab work. He wrote a book called The Archaeologist’s Laboratory, which explores these topics.
A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently looted artefacts without their knowledge. Buying antiquities in Israel is legal if they were found before 1978, the year a major antiquities law was passed. There are numerous dealers in Israel, who are required to register with the Israel Antiquities Authority and keep an inventory of the artefacts they have for sale. Dr. Morag Kersel, of Brown University in the United States, has been studying the illegal antiquities trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.
Post-Doctoral Fellow - Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University
Dr. Morag Kersel is a post-doctoral fellow at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University, in Rhode Island USA. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a masters degree in historic preservation from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Kersel has done extensive work on studying the illegal antiquity trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. She found evidence that licensed antiquity dealers, in Israel, were selling recently looted artefacts by means of a registry numbers exchange scheme. Her work has also shed light on the motivation of looters to loot. While these include money, other reasons are recreational and, in the West Bank, resistance to Israeli occupation.
She has also done extensive fieldwork, excavating in Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Israel and Turkey. This includes the Cyclades, where her team unearthed nearly 500 fragments of figurines. The fact that they were uncovered in an archaeological excavation means that archaeologists will be able to gain a new understanding into what this figures mean. Beforehand most of the figures from these islands were found in private collections and lack archaeological provenance.
The Globe and Mail’s Patrick Martin (the paper’s former Middle East Correspondent), is reporting that Jordan is asking the Canadian government to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Toronto Canada.
“Summoning the Canadian chargé d'affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls,” said Martin.
Chances are you have never heard of Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun, also known as Khirbet ez-Zeraqon. It’s a 25 hectare fortified town in Northern Jordan that was occupied during a period known as the “Early Bronze III” (2700 BC -2300 BC).
Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun was excavated in the 1980’s and 90’s, and the analysis of this site continues today. However, unlike the great finds mentioned above, this site has received little publicity. While there are scholarly articles you will be hard-pressed to find anything in the popular realm.
Dr. Moawiyah Ibrahim is a professor at Yarmouk University in Jordan. He is also Jordan’s representative to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The committee is tasked with helping to protect heritage sites around the world.
Professor Ibrahim conducted extensive fieldwork at the site of Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun in Northern Jordan in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The site is 25 hectares in size and dates to the early Bronze III (2700-2300 BC). It featured an underground tunnel system, which goes as deep as 100 meters underground. It also had a 5-6 meter thick fortification wall, ringed with 17 meter towers.
Safari operators in Africa realised several years ago that there were people who wanted to see the wildlife, but not shake dirt out of a sleeping bag and take a shovel to dig a loo at the end of the day. Now London-based 
A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently 
The Globe and Mail’s 
Chances are you have never heard of Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun, also known as Khirbet ez-Zeraqon. It’s a 25 hectare fortified town in Northern Jordan that was occupied during a period known as the “Early Bronze III” (2700 BC -2300 BC).
